A Sparking Ember
by Shaded122
Summary: Cinder had been a successful crime lord who led the White Fang to success after success. Now as she returns from a short vacation, she's found that her gang has spiraled out of control.


Cinder was not amused. She had spent the past two years building up the White Fang gang, working tirelessly to make it into the perfect crime organization. She had even gone through great effort to strike a deal with the local police force and the local militiamen. The agreement had been that the White Fang would control their criminal activities and neither the police nor the militiamen would actively pursue them. Under her guidance the White Fang had thrived. They crushed any and all rival gangs and avoided active persecution from all forms of law enforcement. Seeing her success she had decided to take a couple of months off. So she grabbed her two most trusted allies and left the gang in the care of Roman Torchwick.

Now two months later, Cinder returned to the city of Vale to the news that Roman had been overthrown by a pathetic upstart of a man named Adam Taurus, who had taken the White Fang and turned them into nothing more than brutes. Not only that but he had completely ignored their pact with the police and militiamen, and as a result they were getting close to having an open war on their hands. The scowl on her face as she walked down the street was echoed on the faces of Neo and Emerald as they walked behind her. The stars shone brightly in the night sky, but their beauty was lost to her as her anger prevented her from paying any real amount of attention to them.

A short high pitched cry of "get away," caught Cinder's attention as she passed by an alley way. Turning to look into the alley she saw a young woman being held against the wall by one of the White Fang failures. A small group of his friends stood there watching as he repeatedly told her that struggling would only make him hurt her worse. The look of mild confusion that had crossed her face was instantly replaced by a hateful scowl and she strode purposefully into the alley with Neo and Emerald close behind, though they stopped a few steps behind the brutes. The Fang dropouts had been so caught up in their current task that they didn't even notice Cinder until she strode past some of them and placed her hand on the wrist of the man who was holding the smaller woman.

The man turned to look at whatever fool would try to interrupt him when he saw the stone cold face of his former boss and realized his mistake. He had known that what he was doing was going against her standards, but he had convinced himself that she wouldn't be coming back. He had convinced himself that he was safe from her. Now as he looked into Cinder's amber eyes that were overflowing with poorly concealed fury, he realized that there was nothing he could say to justify himself, and with the bone-crushing grip she had on his wrist, there was no escaping her either. Then, suddenly, the pressure on his wrist was gone. So relieved was the thug that he didn't even think to expect the backhand that snapped his head to the left.

Cinder looked down at the man she had just hit. She knew he was dead, she had snapped his neck with that attack. She may have been on vacation, but that didn't mean that she had gotten soft or weak. There was a reason she had risen to be the leader of the White Fang at such a young age, and contrary to popular belief it had nothing to do with her looks. Looking up she directed a glare at the rest of the pathetic grunts that had her surrounded and watched as they all took a cautious step back. A disapproving scowl found its way onto her face as she gave a slight nod, which was all the signal that Neo and Emerald needed. The two moved in on the group so fast that the first few taken out didn't even realize what had happened. The resulting fight lasted only moments as it was proven that Cinder's trusted friends were far stronger than an average grunt could ever hope to be.

After ensuring that all of the idiots were taken care of, Cinder felt that it was safe to spend some time making sure the young woman was okay. The unidentified girl had fallen to her knees and broken down in tears during the fight. Kneeling down next to the girl, one of the first things she noticed were the red tips in the girls black hair. An odd fashion choice, but one she found that she didn't dislike. She might even copy it in the future sometime. Cinder waited a moment before touching her on the back, quickly pulling her hand back when the girl tensed up.

"It's okay," Cinder said calmingly. "I'm not going to hurt you." When the girl continued crying, Cinder went to put her hand on the girls back again. This time the girl didn't tense up and so Cinder left her hand there as a form of comfort. "Please… look at me. I'm trying to help you."

The girl looked up at Cinder. Her silver eyes staring right into Cinders amber ones. The brightness in those eyes startled Cinder. ' _They're far brighter than the stars… and so full of hope… and fear,'_ she thought to herself. "I'm Cinder, who might you be?"

The girl had seemed to gain control of her crying. She looked at Cinder for a few more seconds before deciding to voice a response. "My name's Ruby," she said softly.

"Well, Ruby, I can promise that we're not going to hurt you," Cinder said while gesturing to Emerald and Neo. Both of whom were standing behind her. "You're safe with us."

Ruby nodded with a ghost of a smile on her face, before moving closer to Cinder to give the older woman a hug. Not expecting this, Cinder instinctively moved away from the contact, only to have Ruby grip her tighter and hold the hug. After a moment of hesitation Cinder decided to hug Ruby back. After a few more moments, Ruby still not releasing the hug, Cinder moved to be sitting rather than kneeling and brought Ruby into her lap.

"She's rather clingy isn't she?" Emeralds voice asked from off to the side.

Looking over Cinder saw both Emerald and Neo standing there with amused smiles on their faces. A small smile found its onto her own face as she responded. "She just went through a lot. I may not have expected this… but I think she deserves some rest right now."

Ruby wasn't asleep, but she didn't seem to want to move at the moment, so Cinder did the only thing she could think of to help the younger woman to relax. Looking up at the sky she let herself get lost in the beauty of the stars as she started singing a simple song as softly as she could. The song wasn't all that long, but it spoke of hope in dark times and promised that a light would be seen as night turned to day.

As she was singing Cinder could feel Ruby relax more and more until the younger girl was asleep in her lap. A small, content smile on her face. Looking down at the girl Cinder gave a short laugh before looking up at Emerald and Neo. "I guess we can't leave her here. I'll take her back to my place for the night."

 **A/N**

 **So... This was a short idea I wrote up for Imo. She told me to post it as a one-shot... so here you guys go.**


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